Art – A Graphic Reminder of Slavery

In this modern day world, we live in, one does expect to hear or encounter the world slavery let lone experience it; but there are some parts of the world where modern-day slavery still exists. It is estimated that there are about 40 million people in the world that are currently in modern day slavery. Slavery can take many shapes and form including forced marriage, human trafficking, forced labour, debt bondage and many others. What is astonishingly atrocious is the people who carry out these crimes. Imagine if the people who commit these terrible crimes against other human beings were to walk a mile in their shoes and experience what these slaves were going through? How would they feel?

This is what the new memorial at Montgomery, Alabama tries to achieve. The lynching memorial depicts the horrors of slavery and the struggles that slaves had to endure. The memorial honours the lives of more than 4000 black people who were victims of lynching due to the racism of that era in the United States Of America. By showcasing their names and depicting controversial sculptures of slaves near the memorial site, Bryan Stevenson who created the Equal Justice Initiative, responsible for the memorial, believes that the site will encourage more dialogue between different folks in the city. He believes that by talking about slavery people will become more sympathetic to the injustice that befell the African American community of that era and people of all colours can come to terms with their past, make peace with it and eventually remember not to repeat the mistakes ever again. One thing is for sure; talking about slavery is not enough, especially when it comes to modern-day slavery which is a real human rights issue. What will make all the difference, on the other hand, is actually doing something about this problem.